Wild Berry Meadow If you keep on believing..

Two days.

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"Aaaaba?” Her voice, long cracked and run dry, rasped through the silent night. Tearstained cheeks glistened under the sun, hunger gnawed relentlessly at her stomach, and her energy was nearly spent. “Aaaaabbnaaaa,” she cried, her words caught in the hitch of her own sobbing and sniffs. “Aabaaaaaa, you tan come’nout now. You tan come ou’ now, Aabaaa.” Her head drooped low, dragging along the bending ground with her tired steps. Her mouth trembled awfully with each utterance. “I’nlove you, Aabaaaa.” She loved him. She loved him so. The unbearable distance and the endless time apart were proof of her love. She knew she loved him because she could not bear being so far away for so long, and now. She loved him, she loved him, and she loved her family.

Self-soothing in the passing memories of exhaustive play, she murmured, scratching through sobs, “N Aakaaaa, ‘n Tau. Akmaaa. BPlease com’bout now, Aabaaaa.”

Her fur was torn from bramble and thicket, each tear a testament to her relentless journey. The world around her was a blurry haze. “Aaaba, pleaseee,” she whimpered, but no answer came. Her throat was dry, parched from the lack of water. Her food had run out when she’d finished the spare rabbit ear she’d brought with her on the first night. Her chest pounded and slowed, lived and fell, yet she continued to push forward. Little sleep had left her eyes caved in, bloodshot and weary.

Each movement was a struggle, her legs trembling under the weight of her exhaustion. She had been calling for him since she left, each cry more desperate than the last. “Pnease, Aaabaaa,” she coughed, the words barely capable of sounding out as her voice truly faded in and out. Her heart ached with the weight of her longing, but she pressed on, driven by the hope that she would find him. Hope that was leaving now. She didn't want to fall out here and close her eyes. She knew she could not, and strangely- feared what would happen if she did.